It is impossible to make blanket statements about anime except for two:

1) It is made in Japan, since anything not made in Japan is not called anime.
2) It is animated, since that is also part of what defines something as "anime".

Other than those two statements, no generalizations are appropriate. There are many different genres and styles of anime out there. Are some of them childish? Yes! Many of them are aimed at children, and many of them are aimed at childish non-children. (Just because a show has ecchi content does not prevent it from being childish, and just because a show is aimed at kids does not mean tat it is childish...) However, many of the shows and movies that are being made are serious dramatic art; avante garde experimental cinema; ribald, raunchy, irreverent adult oriented comedy (which a certain sub-set of the adult population will call childish, even if it is not); or deep, compelling drama.

One of the things that the average, non-anime watching American doesn't realize is the breadth of topics that Japanese manga and anime cover. In large part, that is because of the relatively small footprint the of Japanese live-action film industry. For a good portion of the later half of the 20th century anime was the primary creative outlet for artists wanting to make motion pictures in Japan, and manga as an art form and form of story telling for all ages is equally prominent in the culture. The US does not have a similar experience with animation and graphic novels as an art form aimed at adults, so people tend to view anime as childish. (My wife, on the other hand, looks at me and says, "You know these shows are just soap operas in a different form, right?" LOL!)

If someone that you know thinks anime is childish and you really want them to understand it better, I would advise showing them a few choice shows like Spice & Wolf and introduce them to the more mature side of anime!

Lol anime is entertainment some people go pay 400 bucks for a ticket to watch people dance around in tights on a stage and some people pay 400 bucks to watch men tackle each other in tights on a field I think paying 14 bucks to watch anime a bargain and multiple sources of entertainment. Who can argue.

It is impossible to make blanket statements about anime except for two:

1) It is made in Japan, since anything not made in Japan is not called anime.
2) It is animated, since that is also part of what defines something as "anime".

Other than those two statements, no generalizations are appropriate. There are many different genres and styles of anime out there. Are some of them childish? Yes! Many of them are aimed at children, and many of them are aimed at childish non-children. (Just because a show has ecchi content does not prevent it from being childish, and just because a show is aimed at kids does not mean tat it is childish...) However, many of the shows and movies that are being made are serious dramatic art; avante garde experimental cinema; ribald, raunchy, irreverent adult oriented comedy (which a certain sub-set of the adult population will call childish, even if it is not); or deep, compelling drama.

One of the things that the average, non-anime watching American doesn't realize is the breadth of topics that Japanese manga and anime cover. In large part, that is because of the relatively small footprint the of Japanese live-action film industry. For a good portion of the later half of the 20th century anime was the primary creative outlet for artists wanting to make motion pictures in Japan, and manga as an art form and form of story telling for all ages is equally prominent in the culture. The US does not have a similar experience with animation and graphic novels as an art form aimed at adults, so people tend to view anime as childish. (My wife, on the other hand, looks at me and says, "You know these shows are just soap operas in a different form, right?" LOL!)

If someone that you know thinks anime is childish and you really want them to understand it better, I would advise showing them a few choice shows like Spice & Wolf and introduce them to the more mature side of anime!

Man, I wish I could express myself like you are able to. I so agree with what you said.

I became interested in anime when I watched Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki. I believe I saw previews on TV when Disney brought it to the US. I bought all his movies as they came here. Before that my impression of anime was programs like Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z which were designed to sell card games and merchandise. I found online sites like MyAnime.com which reviewed virtually all anime ever produced and started buying interesting sounding anime DVD's and became hooked. I must confess that most of my friends think I'm strange, but they thought that anyway. By the way, a lot of good live action movies produced in the US were based on Graphic Novels.

Anime isn't that childish, it just depends on what you are watching. Most people see anime and then think of cartoons, but if you think about it a lot of people watch cartoons such as family guy and american dad.
Anime is something that you cannot say is childish as it can cover many topics- some childish but others very similar to an adult tv drama.

I personally don't think it's childish but whenever someoen says it is I ask them about the anime with all the nudity, sex, cussing, etc. I mean I didn't know they let kids watch that stuff. But hey I like it and if that makes me childish whatever I'd rather be childish than adultish be boring.